PMD: Pokémon Misadventure Dungeon
by Bodacious Overlord Zextillion
Summary: A Mudkip and Eevee get the idea to form the first "justice team" in the Pokémon world from one of their friends, a smug Snivy. The funny thing is, it's really just a fancy name for an exploration team.
1. Justice Team Preservers

Looking over her head, the Serperior asked her son, "And what have you been up to today?"

The Snivy looked back at the Serperior and quickly said, "Nothing, mother." Saying that, he picked up his fork and continued eating his food.

Not ready to give up, the Serperior asked again, "What did you do this time?"

"I swear, I didn't do anything! At least, not today." The Snivy looked uninterested in this conversation, as he had it with his mother quite a bit of times already. He observed his mom swallow her food whole without the use of a knife or fork; two items that Snivy himself was very accustomed to using. When Snivy evolves into a Servine, the Servine's arms actually grow a little shorter, but when the Servine evolves into a Serperior, the Pokemon then loses its legs entirely, and its arms grow even shorter. Being forced to adapt to new circumstances definitely wasn't this particular Snivy's strong point, and everybody who knows him knows that as well.

Thinking this speech over while fondling with his food, the Snivy looked rather focused on getting back to his room, an elegant, but simple room made out of leaves, with enough expert craftsmanship to allow a window in the structure without causing the roof to simply fall down. The Snivy would usually spend his free time in there, reading up on news then writing angry letters to the news editors that were so rather well-written, they just had to appear on everywhere. But the newspaper itself, of course. Despite his overwhelming intellect, he does have his flaw: thinking that he is better than everybody else. This often leads to insulting other Pokemon, which then leads to trouble. And a lot of it. This is why his mom tried to give him counseling, but one day after a counseling session, the counselor simply took the money and cried away from the house.

"It's quite a shame you don't have any friends, Vinny," the Serperior said to her son.

Tap.

The Servine sitting to her right chuckled to herself and said, "Are you gonna take that, brother?"

Vinny responded, "Well, I would, but I since both of you know where I live-"

"Because we live in the same house," the Serperior interrupted.

"-Since both of you know where I live, I can't exactly get away with pissing you two off."

The Servine said, "You piss me off all the time."

"Exactly," Vinny said, smug look and all.

Tap.

The Servine, picking something up on her ears, asked her family, "Hey, is anybody else hearing a tapping noise?"

CRASH

A rock flew out of the window and knocked over Vinny's soup bowl, which he really didn't feel like eating today anyways. The Serperior and Servine rushed over to the window, while Vinny got off his chair and headed for the exit to this house. The Serperior expected that the culprit was another one of Vinny's verbal punching bags, but what she saw outside was a friendly looking Mudkip and a visibly distressed Eevee.

The Mudkip said, "Hello there Mrs. Vinny's Mom! Is Vinny home today?"

Vinny's mom tilted her head, then put it back up. She cleared her throat and said, "No, I am afraid Vinny is not inside the house right now." Not wanting to risk more property damage, she needed to make sure the hooligans remained outside searching for Vinny.

The Servine said to her mom, "Hey, about that part where Vinny had no friends."

"One of them had to be a normal type."

The Eevee recomposed herself and said to Mudkip, "What are you doing? You want to upset his parents, who already hates the outside world?"

"Oh, and what would you suggest we do, Miss Eevee?"

"We, oh I don't know-"

"lol Audino."

The Eevee half-closed her eyes in annoyance and continued on. "Ahem. We could have used the front door? Knocked on it a little?"

The Mudkip slammed its face on the ground. He gazed back up at the clear blue skies above him then said to the Eevee, "Oh. I guess you're right about that. Well, Vinny's not here anyways, so..."

The two looked down then walked around the house to the opposite side. Walking past the front door, the Eevee said, "Damn. I thought he never got outside because living in a house made out of grass and leaves is supposed to give you plenty of fresh air, right?"

Vinny said, "What's this about me not going outside ever?" The two were startled and looked back at Vinny, arms crossed with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Smugleaf? I thought you were gone." the Mudkip said.

Vinny's left eye twitched a bit at the mention of his nickname, then he held out his palm and corrected the Mudkip. He said, "No no no no no. My mom said that I wasn't INSIDE the house, which would be technically correct. I left before she said it, so yeah."

The Eevee asked him, "Do you do that a lot? Go away before your mom says anything about your state? Wait a second, if you mean what you say, you weren't even in the house to hear what she said!"

Vinny answered, "To be honest, it usually doesn't happen because usually its angry news reporters and people that I recall insulting that visit my house, not random friends. When THAT happens, my mom wants to pretend I don't even exist, and I eventually got the memo and hid in a bush somewhere after being berated by angry Magnemites once."

The Mudkip asked him, "You don't make very many friends, do you?"

Vinny scoffed at this question. He answered, "What use would I have for friends that slow me down? Most Pokemon around my age are dimwitted or too weak for my taste."

Again, the Mudkip inquired, "What does that mean about us?"

Crossing his arms and smirking, he said, "You could be of some use to me. But tell me, why are you two here? I didn't invite you over for tea and games."

The Eevee said, "Well, I was thinking about your idea yesterday."

Vinny raised his eyebrow at this. He asked, "What idea?"

"About forming a justice team," she continued.

It took Vinny a few seconds to process this information. He quickly covered his mouth with his hands and laughed out loud. After a few seconds, he asked the Eevee, "And you're serious about this?"

She nodded. She said, "We just need a cool team name. That is, if you're in, of course."

Vinny looked at the Mudkip and addressed him, "I'll assume that you're in this too, Miss Undine?"

Undine spoke back angrily, "That's SIR Undine to you, Grasshole! And yes, I do think that this is a pretty neat idea."

Vinny said, "I'll call you whatever I want to call you if you keep calling me Smugleaf. And expect the terms to get more verbal if you call me something like 'Grasshole'".

Turning back to the Eevee, he said, "You are aware that my idea was a joke, right?"

She beamed and said, "Well, sometimes a good joke can give a good idea to the right mind!"

Noticing how serious she was about this, Vinny gave in and said, "Alright, fine. I'll join your 'justice team'. But if this doesn't work out, which I'm sure it won't, I have all rights to say, 'I told you so!' So about that name."

The Eevee said jokingly, "How about team Eon?"

Undine turned to her and said, "Oh, naming the team after yourself, huh?"

She replied, "Better than your name. Team Water, bah!"

Vinny raised his eyebrow at the whole Team Water thing. He said, "Team Water? Not only is that unoriginal, but you're also the only water Pokemon in this entire kingdom."

"Oh really?" Undine defended. "I'd like to see what kind of team name you've got!"

Vinny shrugged. He said, "+1. Or Swagger. I don't know. All the names that are currently coming to mind sound rather... cliche and done already."

Eon asked, "Oh, and what would those names be?"

"Rocket, Magma, Aqua, Plasma. Heck, even Galactica sounds like it was used already."

Undine said, "Galactica huh. You know, that actually sounds pretty cool."

Vinny responded, "That's the problem. If it sounds cool, it's most likely used by some other rescue or exploration team somewhere in the world."

Eon frowned. "But we aren't forming a rescue team or an exploration team."

Vinny said, "Well, it IS a justice team. By the name alone, it sounds like we go around and apprehend criminal scum, but that's something an exploration team already does."

Undine slumped down on the ground. He said, "Damn. If a justice team isn't gonna work, then what will?"

Eon said with a frown, "I think the real problem here is getting started. Anybody can go and form a rescue or exploration team with ease because you get free supplies, but where are we going to get those supplies if we aren't forming one of those?" Eon slumped down and joined Undine in looking depressed. "Man, I didn't really think this through."

A plan formulated within Vinny's head. He snapped his fingers when he finished thinking about it. He told his two friends, "We could always steal the equipment!"

Undine looked up and said, "Steal?"

Vinny corrected himself by saying, "I mean borrow."

Eon said, "You can't be serious."

He retorted with a smirk, "Oh, but I am. Meet me at the plaza at 2300 hours."

Eon stared into those red eyes and barely whispered, "He's being serious." Speaking louder, she asked, "I thought you were joking about you wanting to make a justice team with us."

Vinny, with a smug look on his face, said, "Am I really taken sarcastically everytime I speak? Ha. Anything sounds better than being kept in this house. Funner even. Justice team Preservers, away."

Eon said, "Preservers huh. You know, that sounds pretty good."

Undine said, "That actually does sound pretty good. Too good. How do you know that it's not some overused thing that every other Pokemon team uses?"

Vinny answered, "Well, in my opinion, it sounds cool, but not too cool that it comes up as a team suggestion first. Sure, there may be a few teams out there that already use that name, but at least it won't be as overused as something like 'Team Pokemon'".

Undine groaned. "Arceus forbid something like 'Team Pokemon' being our name."

Eon said, "Well, I guess we should be going now. I've got things to do." Chuckling a bit, she asked, "When we get our stuff, what are we going to do afterwards?"

Vinny shrugged. He said, "Well, we could go out. Have a few adventures here and there. Save a little boy from getting stuck in the well."

Undine asked, "How is that different from an exploration team?"

Vinny smiled the smuggest smile anybody has ever seen him put on his face and said calmly, "It isn't. Now off you go, you two. We've got a test coming up for us tomorrow."

The two nodded. Eon said ,"Right," then started to run off towards her home. Soon after, Undine did the same.

Looking at his two friends go, Vinny said to himself, "Sorry for lying to you mom. Looks like I am up to something today."

* * *

Vinny sat down on a bench in the plaza at about 10 before 11 P.M. Trying to wake himself up after a long nap and a quick shop to the window repairman, he looked around trying to find either Eon or Undine. Eon showed up first with what appeared to be a lock picking kit. She jumped up on the bench and rested her head using her forearms as a pillow, then yawned. Looking at the bag on the ground, Vinny asked her what that was for.

"It's a kit for getting doors open," she replied.

"But you can't use it," Vinny declared matter-of-factly.

Eon lifted her head and yawned. She looked and Vinny with half-closed eyes and smiled. She swayed her head back and forth and said, "But you can. Half the kingdom knows how many times you've sneaked out of your room in the middle of the night."

"Oh really, how many?"

"467."

Vinny opened his eyes all the way. He said to himself, "Really? That little?"

The two sat on the bench and waited for about 10 minutes. Growing impatient and almost falling asleep on Eon, Vinny asked her where Undine was.

Eon said, "Oh, don't be so harsh on him. It's not like he has as good nightvision as us anyways."

Vinny said, "But the lamp posts."

Eon sat up. "I guess you're right about that."

After another minute, Eon spotted a silhouette under the light of a lamp. She extended her paw towards it and said, "vinny, look!" Vinny got into a battle stance. After realizing that its head had an abnormally large limb protruding out of it and that it was a quadruped, he relaxed a little.

Vinny scolded Undine. "What took you so long to get here? I was waiting a whole 20 minutes or so."

"But 20 minutes isn't that long of a wait..." Undine defended. "Sorry I'm late, it's just that I have a bit of trouble seeing in the dark, and using scent to go around this place doesn't exactly work due to how quickly polluted air turns fresh because of all the trees!" Noticing how closely Vinny and Eon were sitting close to each other, he asked, "Did you two do anything while I was away."

Vinny getting the memo smirked and said, "Yeah. We were waiting on this cold night on this rather comfortable bench just for you to show up," as Eon answered, "Not really, why do you ask?"

"Er... okay." Turning to Vinny, Undine asked, "So what's up? Why are we here this late at night."

Vinny stretched and got off the bench. He pointed towards a stone building that looks very Romanesque. He said, "That's the rescue team headquarters. We're gonna break in there, get some stuff, and head back out."

Undine looked at the building. He said, "But why do we have to go through all this hassle to make a team? Can't we just form an exploration team, get our free stuff, then change our team description?"

Vinny held his palm out, then wagged his finger. "No, that's too easy. We've got to do things the illogical way. That way, we can make a name for ourselves. Oh, and reader, it's also so I have a logical reason get out of this place for a long time, ugh."

Eon quirked up. "What was that about a reader?"

Vinny smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, nothing. No need to worry yourself over silly little details, dear. Deer. That is what one of your evolutions is, right?"

Undine spoke up. "Isn't it a bit ironic for a justice team to be stealing?"

"Not in the name of justice," Vinny said. "Come on, we've got stuff to do."

They walked towards the building. Climbing a few steps, they reached the door. Vinny tried to open it, but to no avail. "Damn," he said. "It's locked. Eon, where's the lock picking kit?"

"It's here," she replied. She grabbed the handle in her mouth and handed it to Vinny. She asked, "Are we really going to go in the front door? What if this place is alarmed?"

Vinny smirked. Not taking his eyes off the door, he responded with, "Expect the unexpected. If the sentries are busy doing that, they'll be too busy to expect the expected! And so what if it's alarmed? I've been in this building before. The rescue team kit is inside a glass box in the first room after this door. We can simply break it then run away like madmen." Vinny broke a lockpick and swore silently.

Eon looked nervous. "And what if we get caught? We didn't exactly pack disguises with us."

"In the off-chance that we do get caught-" Vinny replied. Hearing a click come from the other side of the door, he smiled and continued, "-we run from this place. Or get thrown in jail. I know many ways to get out of those places."

Undine said, "Why am I not surprised."

Vinny opened the door slowly. He peeked in when he found that it wasn't alarmed and looked around for guards. In the dim light, he saw two in the first room: one Sableye and a Grovyle sleeping on the floor- probably taking shifts. He needed a way to get the Sableye out of the way so the plan would come off without a hitch.

He left the door open slightly, then tiptoed along the perimeter of the building searching for a decently sized rock. He found one, then came back to the door. Looking in, he saw the Sableye sit down on the wall across from the door. Vinny knocked on the still open door using the rock loud enough for the Sableye to hear it, but not so loud as to wake the Grovyle. A thought came through Vinny's head. What if the Sableye would wake the Grovyle up? Then that won't work as planned.

Getting the Sableye's attention, Vinny turned back towards his two friends. He whispered, "Alright, on me." He raised the arm with the rock on it and observed the Sableye moving towards the door without waking the Grovyle up. When he got close enough, Vinny quickly opened the door and threw the rock straight at the Sableye's face, leaving him no time to react at all. He fell on the floor and Vinny commanded, "Alright, let's move the body somewhere."

Eon and Undine were staring at the body with shocked expressions on their faces. Undine began to protest, but Eon asked one word: "Where?"

Leaving the body in the middle of the street, the three snuck their way in, looking for the rescue team kit. Vinny sent Eon to keep watch over the Grovyle while he and Undine searched for it. Vinny hissed under his breath, "Come on, it's gotta be around here somewhere!"

A few seconds later, Undine motioned Vinny to come over. Undine said, "It's here! It's inside a glass case, and I don't exactly want to break it."

Vinny put his fist under his chin and thought. He said, "You know, now that I think about it, I don't think cutting a hole in the glass case wouldn't be exactly inconspicuous. We should find the storage room for these things. Come on you two."

Hearing that last sentence, the Grovyle woke up. "Wha-" he said groggily. Eon tackled him, then dumped his body next to the unconscious Sableye then went with Vinny to search for the kits.

"Hey Vinny?" she asked.

Vinny said, "Yeah?"

She continued with her question, "Couldn't we just ask for a rescue team kit? It's far less risky, and besides, they give them out for free anyways."

Vinny silently groaned. "Look, like I said before," he replied, "that would be too easy. We need to do things, the harder-ish... way, I guess."

Undine groaned out loud. He said, "And what are we supposed to do? Stumble across the storage room in this huge building?" He stepped over the reception desk and rammed straight into a door.

Vinny looked at the sign above the door and smirked. "1)," he pointed out, "this building is not that big. 2) yes. Just look at the sign above you."

He pointed his finger at the sign and Undine squinted and read out loud, "Rescue team starter kit storage room."

Eon commented, "Well that was easy."

Vinny picked the lock then opened the door. Inside he saw a bunch of Magnemites working and putting metallic objects into boxes. A Magnezone came up to them and asked, "BZZT. WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE HERE?"

Vinny said formally, "Hello, Mr. Magnezone. We are here to check up on the quality of your rescue team kits. My two assistants, Mudkip and Eevee, are here to assist me."

The Magnezone replied with, "ANALYZING FOR TRUTHFULNESS." Sensing nothing wrong, he sent them on their way.

Eon said, "Wow Vinny, that was a pretty good lie. How did you learn to lie like that?"

Vinny winked at her. "Practice makes perfect," he said.

Undine asked, "So we just take one and leave?"

Vinny simply replied, "Yeah." Searching around, he finally took one and headed back to the exit. He addressed the Magnezone, then said, "Sir, we will be taking this specimen and examining its contents. If we do not come back tomorrow, continue doing whatever it is that you Pokemon do."

The Magnezone said, "ALRIGHT THEN. GOOD BYE."

Walking out of the building, Eon commented, "Well that was easy." After saying that, however, she froze in her tracks.

Vinny asked her, "What's up?" then turned around and noticed two rather angry Pokemon looking straight at him.

The Grovyle asked, "What's that you've got there, Prince Snivy?"

Vinny looked at the the kit and noticed that the words 'RESCUE TEAM STARTER KIT' was literally plastered all over the box. Undine put his arm in front of Vinny and said to him, "Leave this to me."

He looked at the two guards and said with a calm face, "Gentlemen, we are just out here on an errand from the kingdom. We were sent to retrieve a rescue team toy collection for Princess Servine, you see."

The Sableye asked, "And why should we believe you and let you go? Half the kingdom knows what Prince Snivy's nightly schedule is."

Eon gave Vinny a glare.

Undine answered, "Because I heard you like water types. Water is what nourishes plants, after all. And I'll have you know, I am a Mudkip, which is a water type, might I add."

Despite no logical reason behind that, the Sableye just said, "Oh... Okay... Then. I guess I'll... let you go? Because I like you. Come on Grovyle, let's let them go despite them clearly looking like thieves. Minor thieves at that."

The Grovyle scratched his head and said, "Oh, sure thing. I mean, they do look like awfully guilty candidates for knocking us out though."

"That's the problem. I don't know why I want to let them- Hey where did they go?"

Vinny looked back at the two guards and said to Undine, "Dang, you're as good at manipulating people as I am."

Undine said, "Well, I'm mainly good at manipulating people positively. You're good at pissing people off, Smugleaf."

Vinny facepalmed. Through his hand, he said, "Don't call me Smugleaf. After all, your real name IS named after a girl."

Eon stood between the two Pokemon and said in an effort to change the subject, "Well, that plan went off better than expected."

Vinny said, "Yeah. I'm actually surprised it went that well."

Vinny stopped when he noticed a poster in the middle of the alley. It said, "WANTED," and showed a picture of him, Eon, and Undine in the rescue team kit storage room. He looked at the end of the alley and noticed a Smeargle walk away with two figures that looked like they contained authority.

Vinny looked at the poster for a moment longer and said, "I knew word got around fast here, but I didn't know it was THIS fast."

Eon said, "Well then, it looks like we're wanted criminals now. I think we should leave."

Undine and Vinny agreed. Vinny said, "Yeah, leaving sounds like a good idea right about now."

Undine shouted out, "JUSTICE TEAM, PRESERVERS, AWAY!"

Pulling the poster off the wall, the three started running. Vinny stopped in his tracks though, and Eon asked him, "What's wrong, Vinny?"

Vinny replied, "Wait. I need to get my stuff. Before we leave, I think you two should do the same."

Eon's ears lifted. She said, "Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I do have some stuff that I never leave. Thanks for reminding me." She looked behind her, then sighed. "It's a shame too. If it wasn't for the trash I got everyday, I would have said this was a nice city."

Undine asked, "Well where will we meet up?"

Vinny came up with a plan. "We'll meet up at the old farm near the mountains. I'm pretty sure the farmer won't mind." The other two nodded then went off in separate directions. Vinny looked at the kit in his hands then towards his house- the castle.


	2. Vinny

Vinny knew from the start that an idea this preposterous would never work. Here he was at the castle, after sneaking out late at night and was presumed dead for a few days when in reality, he snuck off to a nearby kingdom and managed to piss off the locals just for the heck of it by seeing if he could get just a small taste of whiskey, just a sip. Well for a law-abiding town like them, they didn't exactly like that idea and wanted him out. After resisting arrest out of fear of prison, Vinny started running. In a an alleyway, he saw a poster. It said: "WANTED. DEAD OR ALIVE" under a picture of a gruff looking Electabuzz, whose portrait displayed him with unmade hair and a very pointy looking tooth coming up from the side of his mouth. Deciding to read more of it, Vinny discovered that the reason for his status was, "BECAUSE OF SCARING OUR SONS OF DAUGHTERS SILLY"

"Wait, that's it?" Vinny said aloud. "I thought that bad guys were like that dragon in the fairy tales mom reads us. I'm not scared of this guy. He doesn't even look scary."

* * *

Vinny spat on the poster in disgust. "It's not like I even like this place," he said out loud. He looked back at the castle and started walking there. Seldom a thought raced across his mind, as he's been in this situation numerous times. "Just like that one time when..."

* * *

"There was this Electabuzz who was intent on killing you!" the police officer said. "Did you see that way he was charging straight towards you."

The Electabuzz only moved his mouth when he solemnly said, "Sorry about that. I was only trying to escape from the village racism, and in turn, the cops, but I don't think a kid like you would know what I'm talking about."

Vinny shook his head. "No." He was still nervous about being so close to what appeared to be a wanted criminal and what laid in store for him back home. Another grounding? Can't be as bad as the time she...

* * *

...forced Vinny to go without sunlight for a week! He felt so depressed during that time, when his grounding was over, he came out as a wreck, but also stronger in a sense. In that time, he learned how to use the internet, his greatest strength, and probably 4th greatest weakness. He became interested in the type of humor the internet provided him, no matter how screwed up or sarcastic it may be.

He sighed. Time to face his mother. Again. How is he supposed to break the news that he accidentally set fire to one of the only grocery stores in the city? Deciding to test his luck with flat-out stating the truth, he opened the door. Climbing up the set of stairs past the dining room, and all the way into his mom and dad's room, he knocked on the door. "Mom?" he asked.

She opened the door just a few seconds later. Her face normally looked angry or happy...

* * *

And boy, he sure was glad that it wasn't the first one. He didn't like it when his mom was angry, because she was scary when she was angry. He thought she was sad when he felt his shoulders becoming wet, but they felt warmer than ever. She dropped her normal regal demeanor and asked in a heartfelt maternal voice, "Vinny! We were so sad because of you. We thought you were..."

His mom wrapped her huge tail and around Vinny and attempted to hug him using those two short stubs of arms that Serperiors have. Vinny smiled and said, "I can take care of myself now, mom. I'm a big kid now!" He didn't mention that he was nearly crushed by a yellow Pokemon, but he didn't exactly know what the Pokemon's problem was either.

She smiled. "I know you can take care of yourself Vinny..."

* * *

"But don't ever do that again," she said in a bored monotone voice. Her expression matched her voice perfectly.

"Yes, yes, I know. I'm sorry, yadda yadda yadda," Vinny said in an equally rehearsed voice. He's actually surprised that he's gotten off the hook this easy simply by HIM bringing the news to HER. Perhaps it was just that she got fed up of how many times her son snuck away at night? He smiled. "I should totally not hold back any secrets anymore."

"Oh, and son?" his mom asked, life coming back into her voice. He looked around and saw a smirk on her face. "No internet for a week."

* * *

Damn. Well, that didn't go as planned. "Go away, Servine. I'm trying to do something here."

Still latching onto his arm, she said, "No way. I want to see what you're doing too!"

He growled at her. "It's not something for a girl like you to know. I'm a respected boy."

"Well you certainly aren't going to get much respect from me if you act like that."

He tried to explain, "Look, unless you've been doing as much breaking out as I have, you'd just slow me down. This is something I have to do." He thought, I WILL get that new video game. He continued, "As my older sister, you have to protect me. You can protect me by staying here, and letting me do what I want."

She huffed. "Fine," she said. "I'm not telling mom, but you will pay me back."

* * *

"Sure thing," Vinny responded to the serpent. "I don't want to break anything though." He glared at his sister for a while now. Deciding it was a stupid idea to try to sneak into his castle by this point, he raised his hands in a combat position.

A wave of déjà vu must have hit Servine, as she stared blankly before regaining her senses. She smiled and said, "We can take this outside, or we can break more things than mom's heart, and let all the guards come to take us."

Vinny shook his head. "I'm not a fan of either option, to be honest."

"Alternatively, I could turn you in, but that just wouldn't be very family-like, now would it?" Servine's eyes shone, then two vines came out of her back and lashed to the side of Vinny. Knowing what she would do, Vinny simply stood in the same place until the vines came, and he grabbed them out of the air and tugged them down, forcing Servine to faceplant on the ground. Using this opportunity, he quickly made his way over towards Servine before she got up. He made it halfway there when she did, and he decided it was small enough that he could try some moves.

Servine got up, then whipped over at Vinny, who dodged it by ducking and observed the vines plow through a wall. He looked back and said, "Somebody's got to pay for that, you know. Taking his own vines out, he whipped at Servine, who's relatively bigger size made her an easier target to hit. Feeling it connect, he advanced a bit more.

Noticing the less than desirable position that she was in, Servine decided to try something drastic: use Attract on her own family member. After sparring against Vinny and losing several times, she didn't want to take a chance. Recovering from the previous blow, she grimaced before saying in a seductive voice, "Oh Vinny, you're so funny, and surprisingly strong too! Why don't we call this a draw?"

Vinny saw right through his sister's act and smirked. Servine was an avid user of Attract, due to many of the suitors that would ultimately try to marry her when she grew over. "Sorry sis, but I'm not into my own family that way," he said and quickly ran up to her and gave her an uppercut. It didn't hurt much, but the blow left her dazed enough for Vinny to quickly run up the stairs.

Expecting to see his mom or dad in front of his room, he sighed of relief when they didn't show up. He entered his room and began rummaging through his stuff. He wasn't searching for anything that would be useful, but rather a token of friendship, and a practical use for himself.

* * *

Undine gave Vinny the present. He looked at him expectantly and said, "Go on! Open it!"

Vinny looked at Undine bored, as the last few presents he got were more clothes that he, nor any of his other family members wore. He opened it, and sighed in disappointment. "Really?" he asked the Mudkip.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Vinny shook his head. He answered, "Nothing. It's just that... I'm kind of tired of getting the same present that I can't even use every year."

Undine nodded to show his understanding. He looked down a bit, then said, "Well, at least you get presents for your birthday..." he sighed and plopped down.

Vinny patted him on the back. He said, "Hey, don't be that way. Your gifts not the worst I've had, plus this is the first real tie that I've gotten! The only ones I get are the ones that you hang over your head or something."

Undine popped up and smiled. "Oh yeah," he added, "I forgot to mention that do you see this little pocket here?" and pointed to a little pocket in the middle of the tie. "That thing can carry around small stuff, and goes smack in the middle of the knot, if you use the Windsor knot of course."

Undine smiled and decided that would be pretty useful, not to mention that the colors complimented him quite well. The black outline complemented his green exterior and the red coloring popped out. "I like it," he said. "But Undine."

Undine tilted his head a bit. "Yeah?" he asked.

"How do you know so much about ties?" Vinny asked.

Undine scratched his head. He responded with, "Well, I guess I needed something to do in my free time after I got to my home! Heheh!"

Vinny nodded. "Yeah. Your home..." Questions were in Vinny's head, such as, "How can he even tie a tie with those stubby paws?" and, "What does he mean? Do his parents ever take him out, ever?"

* * *

"Look," Vinny sighed, "I'm sorry about hurting your feelings earlier, Eevee. It's just, you're a girl."

Eevee sniffed. "Figures. Boys don't like girls... But, it doesn't look like you like boys either."

Vinny tensed up. "I like boys more than you girls. It's taboo for a boy to even get close to a girl, remember that."

Eevee's eyes were still red. "But why is that?" she sniffed.

Vinny stood up and struck a dramatic pose, fist extended and vines extended to the ground, as to look like anchors holding him down, then said, "It's the code of a man. Boy's law states that you can't be with a girl, otherwise they'll corrupt you with their girly girl ways!" Vinny relaxed and looked back at Eevee. He raised and eyebrow inquisitively and asked, "Say, why did you get so worked up over us taking a rock from you? I mean, it can't be that valuable."

Eevee gritted her teeth and lowered her eyebrows. She stood up and said, "That rock wasn't just any rock, you boy! It was an everstone. It won't let me evolve if I don't want to!" Eevee made forward as to butt heads with Vinny, but her words struck Vinny. "It won't let me evolve if I don't want to!" it echoed inside his mind.

Vinny noticed Eevee trying to headbutt him, so he stepped to the side and asked her in a more gentle and regal voice, "What do you mean it won't let you evolve?"

Eevee noticed the drastic change in mood and said, "Well, I don't know how it does it, but my mom said if I didn't want to evolve, I could keep an everstone with me at all times. It might be magic, I don't know." She sighed, and reached inside her really puffy collar and pulled out a stone. At first glance it looked like a normal stone, but if you felt it, it just felt smooth all around. Vinny stared at the object in fascination, and Eevee noticed it. "Hey, you don't want to evolve either?"

Vinny shook his head. "Nuh-uh. My sister told me how to use my arms, and if I evolve, I'll lose them! More like devolving if you ask me." He sighed. "Whatever. If I evolve, I'll get more stronger, but I don't want to be a strong man, like my dad. I want to be really fast when I grow up, dashing from place to place, jumping off of walls like, like, uh..." Vinny paused in his video game fantasy and sighed. He simply stated after that, "Yeah, I don't want to evolve. Why don't you want to evolve?"

Eevee said, "Well, I just want more time to think about it. An Eevee can evolve into many things, and they're all good in their own ways. But for me, I just want them all! It sounds selfish when I say it like that, but I don't want to be forced into one role just because of who I am. I want, to be me, to make your own decisions about life. I don't want to be my species. I AM ME!" Eevee sighed and backed down.

Vinny said, "Well, if you don't want to be your species, might as well give yourself your own nickname for people to call you, like what I did."

"Huh? What do you call yourself, Snivy?"

"Vinny. It's just something cool that I thought of, not a pun on vines or anything. That was just a coincidence."

Eevee tilted her head back in thought. After a few seconds, she snapped it back and said, "Well then, I guess my new name's Eon then." The two then shook hands to the best of their abilities, due to Eon's quadruped status. Surprisingly, it didn't look like she was going off balance.

Vinny heard girlish giggling coming from his side, so he looked over and saw the school girly girls looking at them. He heard somebody shout, "Snivy! What are you doing?" behind him, so he looked around and saw the mean guys approach him. "You touched a girl! What's wrong with you, dude?" the nondescript ringleader said. To be honest, Vinny didn't care about the other kids at school. He only had to deal with a few more months before he went to a new school, away from most of these idiots. Still, after hearing Eon's story, he felt like he actually had a friend, one considered taboo by the other kids his age.

He lifted his head like his mom and dad before him and spoke, "I don't care about that kind of stuff. Call me weird or not, but I am who I am. Nobody can change that but me." He looked at Eon, who was shying away from the group of girls giggling, probably romanticizing the moment that the two shared. Vinny sighed. He knew the teasing wouldn't be over. He just hoped that by next week, it would die down just a little. He had this nagging feeling that he'd need to be with Eon for that everstone, but maybe even for a friend when they were outcast by the others.

* * *

Vinny fingered the tie. Locating the everstone in the pocket, he sighed in relief. Looking around the room, he didn't find anything else of use, minus the computer that he would likely never use again. Looking in his mirror, he put the tie, a fancy gift from Mudkip, who wants to be known as a being of power, Undine, from what he overheard about old human myths, on. It had the everstone, a gift from the Eevee Eon after she finally opened up to him and trusted him enough with a gift that precious and remembered the memories that he spent with them and this house. His sister's probably gonna be pissed at him for becoming a wanted criminal, but he didn't care. He hated it here, and his friends did too.

Vinny looked out the window. He didn't want to jump out at a height that high, nor did he want to try to use his vines as a climbing ladder. "Damnit," he hissed. "Looks like I'm going back down the stairs."

Down one staircase... and another. He came to the floor where he the battle with his sister earlier. Before fully advancing down the stairs, he peeked around a wall to see if anybody was there. He didn't spot his sister, but remembered that he left the door to his room open. He snapped his fingers in annoyance, but that caused an echo throughout the grassy ballroom louder than he thought possible in a house made entirely out of nature. He half expected his sister, mom, or one of the guards to come popping out any moment. When they didn't, he proceeded down the room.

Vinny climbed down more stairs and hoped he didn't piss anybody off in the process. The castle felt surprisingly empty, and how the lack of guards posted worried him a bit. Sure, the castle wasn't all that big, and it wasn't like his mom or dad were ruling monarchs, but he felt that the lack of security for a house this big with its family that important was way too much of an error to screw up. Going down the floors simply wasn't as fun when there wasn't anybody around to catch you. Vinny didn't have to be sneaky, he didn't even have to try.

Getting to the bottom floor, he noticed why that was the case. All the guards were guarding the exits to the house. Vinny hissed under his breath. There's no way he's getting through that. He would have considered fighting them head on, at least long enough for them to get distracted and move away from the door so he could make a bolt for it, but he remembered that they were posted as guards for a reason. Vinny sighed. He didn't often admit that he was worse at things than other people, but this time, he considered it.

Sitting down on the stairs and hoping that nobody would come over and notice him there, Vinny weighed the options. "Fight all the guards and risk getting a scolding from mom?" and raised his right hand, then he raised his left and said, "Or fight all the guards and get thrown in jail. Questions. Answers. Choices. Which to choose? Hmm." He pondered his choices for a bit, then yawned. With outstretched arms, he decided his course of action. His eyes shone, and he stood up in a manner ready to tackle on 300 battle hardened men to the death.

"Let's do this," he said, and smirked.

Vinny ran up the stairs and jumped out a window. Luckily for him, the 2nd floor up wasn't that high up, and Vinny's relatively small size allowed him to get away with less than a few throbbing pains in the leg area which he landed on. Vinny smiled and adjusted the tie on his natural collar and muttered to himself, "Thank you for teaching me how to get away from a scene unscathed, physics. Now, just-" Vinny gritted his teeth then continued, "walk it off, Vinny. Just walk it off. It's just stinging, that's all," referring to the pain in his knees getting continuously less noticeable.

Vinny finally joined his friends outside the city, and Undine noticed how much more classy Vinny looked. He smiled and said, "Hey, you're finally wearing that tie I gave you!"

Vinny smiled and said, "Well, it's good for holding stuff, I'll give you that." Vinny hoisted both handles of the rescue team kit onto his shoulders, because it was a backpack after all. Vinny sighed and laid his head back as the three started walking towards the distant, but relatively close city next to them. Vinny asked Undine, "So what did you bring?"

He responded with, "Not much. I got this cool tie though. Thought I might look classy, same with you."

Eon grimaced. She said, "How come I don't get a tie to match you guys?"

Vinny said, "Because you're a girl, obviously."

Eon huffed, "Well then. I just bought this notebook here-" and motioned to the book on her back, "to catalog what we do."

Vinny nodded. He commented on it, "Creative. Hey, why don't we put it in the bag?"

Eon put her notebook in Vinny's backpack, then rustled around in her collar. She pulled out her everstone and said, "I also got this little thing."

Vinny smirked and said, "Funny. I keep mine in the same place." Vinny coiled his right hand into a fist and pounded on the knot on his tie.

Undine looked perplexed and asked, "Hey, what do you guys mean?"

Vinny and Eon both responded, "You wouldn't know. You're a water-type."


	3. Rescue Team Preservers

The town isn't very big, and everybody knows each other, but visitors are very common. After all it's home to one of the greatest attractions in the world. However, this snake seems all too familiar to the Fennekin gazing at it. It appeared to be a small green snake with arms and legs walking through the streets of this town. The Fennekin's first reaction was to think out loud, "What snake has arms and legs?"

Noticing that the snake was coming closer, the Fennekin recomposed herself and went back to the kitchen, where she brought out more plates to serve to valued customers at the one and only 'super spicy restaurant in the entire kingdom' "Blaziken's Grill". It was a simple spicy restaurant and inn, but it was the most popular attraction in the entire town presumably because the food was so damn good!

The snake walked into a bar... the inn and ordered a room for the night. Blaziken called out to the Fennekin, "Fennekin? Can you escort this Snivy to his room tonight?"

She finished serving out the remaining plates she had to the guests then escorted the Snivy upstairs to his room. She looked at the note that Blaziken had given her then told the Snivy, "This is your room, and there should be enough space for three people if you're creative enough! If you need anything, don't hesitate to call room service."

The Snivy bowed and handed me the money to stay the night. He said, "Thank you for the rooms." The Snivy pocketed the room key inside his tie, then lazily threw the bag he was carrying down onto the floor. He rolled his shoulders then said, "That should do it. I'm gonna go wait downstairs for my friends."

The Fennekin nodded, but she came to think, "Who actually wears clothes?" Articles of clothing were and odd subject to talk about in the Pokémon world, unless you were talking to the Sewaddle species of course. Shrugging it off, she went back downstairs to do her job.

She was a waitress at this restaurant inn. She served dishes to customers, and showed them to their rooms. It was simple enough, but at times, it could be rather tedious and tiring, especially on a busy day or occasion. She didn't actually want to stay here for a prolonged amount of time because that meant she couldn't pursue her lifelong goal of going out and helping those in need.

Fennekin sighed. Her shift was almost over, so she decided to order some decaf coffee. She picked up the cup using her teeth and walked over towards an empty spot in the dining room. "Come on Vinny, we can't stay here for long. It won't be long until they find us and sent back home."

Fennekin slumped her head down on the table and took a quick sip from her coffee. It was terrible. "First thing in the morning we leave, okay? It's not that hard. Besides, we already got through our first dungeon already, and that was pretty easy."

Dungeon? Fennekin rose her head to eavesdrop on this conversation. She couldn't help herself, since any conversations even remotely interesting in this small town were generally boring and the same stuff circulating throughout the residents. "Yes yes, we know," a feminine voice said back. "It wasn't that hard because there were only two Pokémon that we had to deal with, and there was only one floor!"

"Oh please, it's still a dungeon. We got the basics of battling down, didn't we?"

"You threw rocks at them in hopes of knocking them out."

"And it worked. Now that we have the kit, we can start a proper rescue team now."

Fennekin turned her head around and listened intently on this conversation. There were three Pokémon on the table eating, an Eevee, a Mudkip, and the Snivy that she serviced today.

After gulping down his food, the Mudkip turned inquisitively towards the Snivy and asked him, "Since when were we a rescue team?"

Snivy bit off a bit more of a Rawst Berry, and with his mouth full, he said in ironic elegance, "Since now, my friend. Nobody's going to take a justice team seriously since there are no justice teams! Besides, how are we a justice team since we just outright stole this stuff?"

The Eevee said, "Can you make up your mind about what we are? We didn't even have to go out and swipe this stuff in the first place if we were planning on being a rescue team in the first place."

"True, but what of the challenge? The fun? The adventure? It just makes it less eventful if all we do is camp out in some run down team base that a lowly Pokémon would give us for free or something rather than be the three amigos going out doing vigilante justice forever on the run from the corrupt cops!" The Snivy threw his arms out and clenched his right fist in front of him, taking another bite out of the berry in the meantime. He continued with a half-full mouth, "We'd look so awesome! We show up in the middle of a desert with masks on and escort a poor old grandma home to her kids in the wild wild west, free of charge. When they ask us our names, we just tip them off, 'Go tell the guards, we're the Bound Souls.' We'd tip off our hats, say 'good day sir,' and start running like crazy away from the guards who'll try to pursue us until they find a perfectly good reason that outweighs what we did wrong! That's adventure right there. Not some silly expedition to a place that's been explored numerous times before, but with a true sense of danger!" The snake slammed his fist down onto the table and inhaled a breath while the Mudkip exhaled his. The snake finished the rest of his berry in one bite and laid it back down on the plate. He took shallow, but strangely deep breaths with his mouth and said afterwards, "Wow. This stuff's hot."

The Eevee didn't seem at all phased by the Snivy's long rant and said, "Yeah, I guess it is. I'm surprised they managed to get these plain seeds to taste so extravagant."

The Mudkip took his cup in both of his front paws and tried to drink what little remained of his water. He spoke out disgustedly, "Bah, I hated plain seeds before, and I hate them now. No flavor, can't fill up my belly, nothing. At least the spicy version tastes nice, but I wasn't ever one for spicy foods anyways." He sucked some air into his mouth to emphasize his point.

With a swift turnaround, the Mudkip turned around to Fennekin face to face. Her eyes were on the exact same level as his eyes, and only then did she realize that her chin was slumped down on the chair. She quickly picked it up and apologized to him by saying, "Sorry, I just have a habit of just resting my head on objects when I'm tired after a long day's of work."

The Snivy figuratively raised an eyebrow and said, "So how much did you hear?"

"Uh, I only really paid attention the the whole rescue team part."

"You heard the part where we stole some stuff too?"

"Yeah, I guess."

The Eevee turned to the Snivy and just said a barely audible, "Uh..."

The conversation was quickly becoming awkward, so Fennekin said the first thing that was on her mind: "Can I join your team?"

The Snivy said, "Yeah sure whatever. Just a word of warning. We're kind of wanted around these parts, but our bounty shouldn't be too high to get the guards to try to arrest us every time they see us."

Fennekin said, "I don't care. I've always wanted to be on an exploration team since I was little. I guess your... rescue... or whatever... team is close enough. Say, when did you make this team by the way?"

The Mudkip said, "Just last night! We haven't slept in a day, so after this, I think I'm just gonna book it. So, your shift is over, or what?"

Fennekin nodded. "Yeah, it is."

The Snivy scratched his head with those leafy arms. He said, "Well, now that you're on our team, I guess we could give you a cool nickname."

"Nickname? What's that for?"

"For the sake of individuality of course. I'm Vinny, that Eevee is Eon-" the Snivy leaned in close to Fennekin's face and said loudly enough for Eon to hear, "-Mighty original name, mind you." Vinny relaxed and pointed at the Mudkip. "And she's Undine."

Undine got up and turned to Vinny. He softly shouted, "That's it! I've had it! Don't call me Undine anymore if it means calling me a girl. Just call me something like... like... um... Ran."

"Ran."

"Uh... Brooklyn?"

"You're not even from Unova! Why would we call you Brooklyn?"

"Brooklyn rage man. All the rage."

Vinny said, "OK. His name is... Ran Brooklyn."

Fennekin said, "Nice to meet you all. Honestly, I can't think of any name for me..."

Eon said, "How's Cendrillon?"

"Sounds nice... but what's it mean?"

"Of the ashes. I was always interested in the mythology and culture of the other regions of the world, so I guess I kind of overlearned a bit of stuff!"

Vinny said, "How do you overlearn a thing?"

After talking for a bit, Cendrillon clearly stopped caring and dazed off a bit. "Damn," she thought. "I need more sleep. Can't be bothered to sleep though. Things to do... Why am I sleepy all of a sudden?"

She looked at her new team. They were doing nothing and were content with doing nothing.


End file.
